Monday night into Tuesday morning of last week will go down in history as one of the most devastating moments for France. The Notre Dame Cathedral was lit up in flames and is now suffering from extreme damages.

Damages have consisted of destroyed stained glass windows, paintings and overall damage to the interior of the building. Even though the building has obtained significant damage to its interior, there was luckily no harm to the stone structure.

The president of France, Emmanuel Macron, has stated that he is looking to have the cathedral up and running again in five years. But with the amount of donations billionaires have been donating to the cause, it may be sooner than the public thinks.

According to USA Today, Francois Henri Pinault and Bernard Arnault are two billionaires who pledged over $100 million to the restoration of the cathedral. There have been other billionaires that have been donating to the cause and receiving backlash for the large amounts that they’ve been donating.

Philippe Martinez, the head of General Confederation of Labor trade union, has brought up an interesting fact; “If they can give tens of millions to rebuild Notre Dame, then they should stop telling us there is no money to help with the social emergency,” he said.

Granted, the tragic event didn’t include any injuries or death, but because of the large amounts that have been donated, many believe that’s another reason why people should be sharing their wealth with other charities and organizations.

So, what are people speculating in regard to the astronomically large amounts being donated?

Many believe that the donations are an advance to gain a benefit for themselves and a larger tax break. But the embers of those claims have been stomped out by other donors and The Washington Post.

How about we delve into some different organizations that could also use some help from these billionaires?

For starters, maybe look into the homeless shelters in France and see if they need any help? I’m sure they do. Seeing as the poverty rate is “60 percent of the populations median income” according to The Borgen Project. Maybe helping those people would be beneficial to their ego?

A second option, with 20 or more animal shelters in France, there are plenty of donations that could go to animals looking for their forever home. Many people don’t remember that pets in a shelter require care, food, toys and love like any other animal. That requires money. Can you see where I’m going with this?

Lastly, even so much as a quarter of the total donated could have gone to cancer research. Generally, any illness that hasn’t been cured yet would be a great cause to donate to.

Either way, no matter the cause, the donated funds would be put to good use.

In all, yes, it is important to see the cathedral rebuilt, but to see that much money being donated at one time raises the question of whether those billionaires donate to any other causes. It’s also important people are homed, stray animals are homed and diseases are cured. It would be nice to as much being donated to these and other worthy causes.